Motor fuel



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MOTOR FUEL Ren de M. Taveau, Newburgh, N. Y., assignor to The Texas Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware No Drawing. Application August 16, 1932, Serial N0. 628,989

4 Claims.

This invention relates to motor fuels and has to do with the provision in motor fuels, such as gasoline, of an anti-knock compound to raise the anti-knock value and to improve the general character thereof.

An object of the invention is to provide a method of increasing the anti-knock value of motor fuels by incorporating a soluble anti-knock compound therein.

A further object of the invention is to produce a motor fuel of higher anti-knock value from a fuel of lower anti-knock value by adding thereto a predetermined amount of a volatile organic compound of lithium.

Motor fuels suitable for treatment, according to the invention, may comprise any of the commercial fuels for internal combustion engines, such as gasolines, naphthas or kerosenes. Straight run gasolines having relatively low antiknock value are particularly adapted for treatment. Cracked or partially cracked or blends of cracked and staight run products having insufficient anti-knock rating may also be treated to advantage. The scope of the invention is intended to cover the treatment of any of the commercial fuels which may tend to detonate when used in internal combustion engines.

According to the invention, a fuel of insufficient anti-knock value is treated by adding thereto a predetermined quantity of lithium compound of the general formula Li-R, which is adapted to function as a suppressor of detonation in combustion engines. The constituent R in the above formula may represent either an alkyl or an aryl radical. A sufiicient quantity of one or more of the compounds is added to the motor fuel to increase the anti-knock rating of the fuel to the desired value with or Without the addition of auxiliary materials such as dyes, antioxidants, or other well known anti-knock reagents.

The lithium alkyls and aryls have been known heretofore and may be prepared according to the methods described in the literature, by one skilled in the art. A convenient method of preparation is to react an alkyl or aryl halide, dissolved in a suitable solvent, with metallic lithium. The fuel to be treated, such as gasoline, may comprise the solvent, in which the desired anti-knock compound may be formed and remain in solution, while the undesired reaction products, such as lithium salts, may precipitate and settle from the solution. Other solvents, of course, such as ether, benzol, and aliphatic hydrocarbons, may be substituted for gasoline as the solvent.

The lithium compounds contemplated for use, according to the invention, may contain any preferred hydrocarbon radicals either aliphatic or aromatic in nature or derivatives thereof. The radicals of the aliphatic series may be any paraffine group, such as hydrocarbon radicals corresponding to methane and its homologues, or an olefine group, such as those corresponding to the compounds of the ethylene series. The aromatic or aryl radicals may be a phenyl or substituted phenyl type or any radical corresponding to the homologues of benzene. The above described classes may comprise, by way of illustration, such compounds as lithium ethyl, lithium propyl, lithium butyl, lithium phenyl, lithium tolyl, etc.

The lithium alkyls and aryls are often relatively unstable and tend to decompose in the presence of moisture, air or other gases such as carbon dioxide. In order to improve the stability and render the compounds more useful it may be ad-- vantageous to provide a stabilizing agent in the mixture of gasoline and anti-knock compound. Materials contemplated as useful for this purpose may comprise certain higher alcohols and esters, such as benzyl alcohol, cyclohexanol, glycerine and benzyl acetate. Also, certain anti-oxidizing catalysts, such as certain amines and phenols or polyhydroxy-phenols and their derivatives, say phenylenediamine, naphthylamine, para-amino-. phenol, cresols, pyrogallol, alphanaphthol, etc. may be used. Usually 0.05 to 0.5% of these stabilizing agents is sufiicient.

The quantity of anti-knock compound necessary to be used to obtain satisfactory results will, of course, vary with the nature of the gasoline to which it is added and will depend largely on the anti-knock value desired for the resultant fuel. In general, it may be said that quantities ranging from 0.1% to 1.0% by weight of the fuel treated will usually give satisfactory results and preferably a quantity in the region of 0.02% to 0.5%.

For purposes of illustration, examples will now be given of the operation of the invention. To a straight run gasoline having an octane number of 40 was added 0.25% by weight of lithium ethyl and the octane number of the treated product was 50. Another sample of the same gasoline was treated with the same quantity of lithium n-butyl and the octane number was raised to 53.

Obviously many modifications and variations of the invention, as hereinbefore set forth, may be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, and therefore only such limitations should be imposed as are indicated in the appended claims.

I claim: 3. A composition of matter comprising a motor 1. The method of improving th mpk fuel containing a small amount of a butyl comproperty of motor fuels which comprises providpound of imm in the fuel a u amount of a butyl 4. A composition of matter comprising a motor 5 pound of lithium fuel containing a small amount of lithium n-butyl. 5

2. The method of improving the anti-knock property of motor fuels which comprises providing RENE DE M. TAVEAU.

in the fuel a small amount of lithium n-butyl. 

